Naga Panchami is a day for the worship of serpents (nagas), kept on the fifth day (panchami) of the bright fortnight of Shravana (July-August), in the height of the monsoon, when snakes, driven from flooded burrows, are most in evidence. Serpents hold a large and ancient place in Indian religion, feared as bringers of death yet revered as guardians of the underworld's treasures and of water and fertility, associated with Shiva, who wears the cobra Vasuki, and with Vishnu, who rests on the cosmic serpent Shesha. On this day devotees offer milk, flowers and vermilion at snake images, anthills, and living snakes where they are shown, and pray for protection from snakebite and for the family's wellbeing.
The observance blends classical mythology with deep-rooted folk and agrarian religion, and its forms vary widely by region: in Maharashtra and the south images or live snakes are honoured; in the north snakes are drawn on walls or modelled in clay. Modern animal-welfare concern has fallen on the older practice of parading captured cobras and feeding them milk, which is harmful to the animals, and many observances have shifted toward images and symbolic offerings. As a rite addressing a real and seasonal danger through reverence rather than only fear, Naga Panchami preserves one of the oldest strands of Indian religious feeling.